Powerman Malaysia 2008

(Pictures are courtesy of Master Photographer Tey)

Powerman Malaysia 2008 = 11 km run – 64 km bike – 10 km run

For the fourth straight year, Powerman Malaysia was the apotheosis of my season. This grueling long distance Duathlon attracts some of the best athletes in the world and enough age-groupers to make most European race organizers drool. Even though I have a somewhat love/hate relationship with the event, politics and my ego were quickly shoved aside to make place for the sporting challenge.

Thanks to Emma, I was able to get a ride to Lumut. It must be said, if it wasn’t for my excellent navigational and co-piloting skills, we might have ended up in Penang. A couple of Emma’s legendary flapjacks kept my concentration level at full alert and we managed to narrowly escape some wandering encounters with the Kampong cows.

Race tactics were pretty simple. Maximize my run and control the damage on the bike. I tend to take some time to really warm up properly. I guess I should become a spokesman for Diesel engines. The main protagonists quickly took the lead of the race. Jason Spong and Anthony Le Duey took off and their pace was too high for me to follow. I decided to stick to my race plan and follow my instincts. Four kilometers into the race, I could feel the extra pistons going off and my running rhythm simultaneously took off. I entered transition feeling extremely comfortable just behind former winner Chrispine Osmondi and just ahead of Danish top duathlete Aksel Nielsen in fifth position (Time: 36:16).

I didn’t try to fool myself on the bike. My confidence has/had been rock bottom for months. Yes, I have improved my efficiency on the bike, but on the other hand my speed has not shown any significant improvement over the past two years. I managed to stay in a good position until the second part of the first lap. I am not able to push the necessary gears at this level. I’ve stopped beating my head in over this fact. Training conditions aren’t ideal where I live, I have no cyclists to train with, and I could use a technical overhaul of my current bike. Although, I must admit the technical aspect is a lousy excuse, it’s the still the engine that matters.

During the first lap, I lost one of my water bottles at a bumpy stretch. I decided to go back and retrieve it. The race was still long and I wasn’t willing to take any additional risks, especially when it comes to hydration and nutrition. Aksel Nielsen told me after the race he had also lost his bottles, but he left them. He totally bonked on the second run. I kept my rhythm and I was very much looking forward to the end of the bike section and start the second run (Time: 1:47:09).

The psychology of running off the bike is if you really think about pretty simple. No matter how bad you might feel, at the end of the day everybody suffers immensely. That thought has always comforted me and I can’t resist a game of Pac-man whenever I can. I have a naturally high running pace, even if I am ready to drop dead. I never felt I was running fast, but Jason Spong told me he had the exact same feeling, still I managed to catch quite a few of the other elites. The moment you pass another athlete on the run, you can see the mirror breaking into many pieces. Mentally it’s a home run in your advantage and I have met very few athletes who have the strength to keep all the pieces glued together. Overall, I managed the fourth fastest time off the bike (Time: 40:41). If you only take the run into account, my cumulative time was fourth fastest of the field. That in itself is a huge achievement considering unlike all the other elites, I am not a full-time professional athlete.

Before Powerman, I had set two goals: Finish in the top ten and be the first “real amateur” to complete the race. I achieved both! My final time was 3:05:45. That was exactly ten minutes behind Andy Sutz, the winner of Powerman Zoffingen 2008. I was able to talk to him after the race, and he quickly noted Powerman Malaysia was tougher than Zoffingen. The heat and humidity can be excruciating in Lumut.

Jason Spong reclaimed his title from 2005. In an awesome 2:43:13, he blew away the competition. A deserved winner who is a class act as a person.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my season. I set certain realistic but challenging goals and I reached all of them. That in itself shows I gave it my best and in the end there’s not much more you can do. Now, I’m looking forward to a break from training. Play some football on the beach with friends, go kayaking and anything that doesn’t resemble Duathlon or triathlon. Oddly though, in two weeks’ time, I will probably miss my training schedules already.

And last but not least, congratulations to everyone who competed as age-groupers and finished in the top three. Well done Emma and Simon!